Tag: Donnie Yen

Movies, Star Wars

Rogue One Subverts Asian Male Stereotypes — and That’s Important

Much has already been written about Rogue One: A Star Wars Story — how it has added new context to the existing Star Wars franchise, how it is a movie ultimately about war.

Rogue One is also a movie that features three men of Asian descent — two East Asian and one South Asian — and, far from relying on stereotypes of “Asian Masculinity,” in fact subverts those stereotypes in a way that feels revolutionary for Western media. (Needless to say: spoilers.)

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Hard N.O.C. Life, Movies, Star Wars

Star Wars Goes Rogue with Val and Bria

Rouge One is the biggest movie on the planet, and we finally devote a whole show to talk about the most diverse (or is it?) Star Wars ever filmed. Joining in on the fun is Tosche-Station.net writer, and Star Wars superfan, Bria LaVorgna and Black Girl Nerds’ movie reviewer, and occasional NOC contributor, Valerie Complex. [Spoilers throughout!]

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Movies, Star Wars

Rogue One Might be the Best Star Wars Ever

As we inch closer to the release of the first chapter of the Star Wars saga outside of the “Episodes,” everything we’re seeing about Rogue One has us feeling that it just might be the best film in the franchise. We’ve already lauded how diverse it is and profiled the film’s POC characters, but now that the final trailer and one-sheet have been released, December 16 can’t get here fast enough!

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Movies, Star Wars

Star Wars Rebels of Color: Details on the POC Characters of Rogue One

This week’s newest issue of Entertainment Weekly has the rundown on this December’s Rogue One, the latest addition to the Star Wars saga. Though the movie has been hotly anticipated for a while — including a well received teaser trailer that dropped a few months back — recent rumors about reshoots and studio interference has given some fans pause. For what it’s worth, I’m still hyped about the flick, if for no other reason than its stellar — and diverse — cast. Last year, we were psyched to see just how inclusive the cast was, and now we know exactly who they will be playing.

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Movies, Star Wars

Star Wars: Rogue One Brings Diversity to the Galaxy Far, Far Away

Over the weekend, Anaheim, CA was ground zero for the geek-o-sphere as pop culture junkies joined the throngs of Disneyphiles to experience the wonder that is D23 Expo. Now that the House of Mouse owns everyone’s fandoms, D23 rivals only San Diego Comic-Con in terms of hype-building. And this year’s Expo did not disappoint. In addition to teasing footage from Marvel Studios’ and Pixar’s 2016 (and beyond) slate of movies, the announcements that got our attention here at NOC HQ came from Lucasfilm on Saturday.

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Martial Arts, Movies

The NOC Review: Donnie Yen’s Back in Kung Fu Killer

As a rabid martial arts film nerd, I’m not easily impressed. It’s one of those things where if you’ve seen one film, you’ve seen them all. So a movie has to really step outside of the box to garner my attention.

The premise of Donnie Yen’s latest action flick, Kung Fu Killer directed by Teddy Chen, did exactly that in grand fashion.

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Martial Arts, Movies, Roundtable

NOCs of the Roundtable: Best Fight Scenes Ever

As our friend Angry Asian Man broke the nerdtastic news this week that some fine fighters from The Raid would be joining the cast of Star Wars, it seemed as good a time as any to convene a roundtable of some of us martial arts film enthusiasts here at the NOC to talk about our favorite martial arts fight scenes.

Before we shared our favorite scenes with one another, we guessed there would be significant overlap, especially concerning the great Bruce Lee. Sure enough, each of us had picked at least one Bruce Lee scene on our individual lists. To avoid repetition, we decided not to double up, so as you can see some folks wrote about legendary Bruce scenes and the rest of us wrote about alternates — but please trust, we keep Bruce at the front of our fighting hearts.

Who’s not on the list, though? Uma Thurman. Just… no.

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Martial Arts, Movies, Sports

The Way of the Dragon: The Career of Cung Le

Just to get the obvious out of the way: Cung Le is no Bruce Lee. Nobody ever will be. That said, I don’t think anyone else currently walks in the shadow of The Dragon quite like Dragon Eyes. As he trains for his next UFC headlining Fight Night in Macau on August 23 against Michael Bisping, I thought it would be fun to point out some similarities between Lee and Le and why, whether you’re into Mixed Martials Arts (MMA) or not, it will be worth getting up early on a Saturday morning to watch the fight.

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Martial Arts, Movies, Origins

Enter the Soya: A Nerd Origin

Two mysterious lands far away from one another — yet linked by seas of soybeans — birthed a child born of melody, harmony, rhythm, and the smell of soy sauce. The child was destined to become a musician… and a tofu-loving pescetarian. But first, between musical gifts, came dreams of Jedi knighthood, ninjas, and flying with a cape.

My dad says he took me to Return of the Jedi when I was 3. I don’t remember it, but judging from the reaction my mom gives when this is mentioned, it happened. What I do remember very well from childhood is becoming obsessed with Superman in the early 80s. It seemed about right being surrounded by farms in a Nebraska town 60 miles from Smallville (okay, the Kansas border). Superman links farmland Nebraska with farmland Goiás (Brazil). My dad and my tio Laurinho took me to Superman III a year later. Remember, it took a bit more time for movies to travel back then. After that, it was capes and the same tio, or anyone else I could get, making me fly in both Brazil and the U.S. while trying not to break stuff.

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